Between 1990 and 2010, Nicaragua reduced the prevalence of undernourishment in the country from 55.1% to 20.1%, thus successfully meeting Millennium Development Goal 1, which is to halve the proportion of people suffering from hunger.

Graziano da Silva reaffirmed FAO's interest in marking this accomplishment during the FAO Conference to be held next June with a special event involving all the countries achieving MDG 1.

The Director-General also informed Santos López that Nicaragua has been selected as one of the pilot countries for priority delivery on Strategic Objective 1 (Contribute to the eradication of hunger, food insecurity and malnutrition) under the new Strategic Framework which he has introduced. The lessons learned will be used by other nations as they also move towards hunger eradication.

Santos López, on behalf of the Central American Integration System (CAIS) and the Republic of Nicaragua, expressed full support for the transformational process being undertaken by FAO and for the Director-General's Programme of Work and Budget for 2014-15. The Minister also highlighted the importance of providing sufficient financial resources for FAO's programmes.